Her father nodded. The country highway crested here on a hill that overlooked a distant lake and the town on the other side.

"We'd come up here on July 4th and watch that town's fireworks reflect off the lake. On our third 4th together, I proposed. You came along a year later, so we missed that one...and then we moved." He smiled and shook his head. "Never been here since."

They talked a while, scattered Mom's ashes, and talked a while more...mainly of three nights on a hill.

Subscribe

Quotables

"Make your country...into a land that understands more than only war and righteous piety. Allow space in your lives for more than battle chants to inspire soldiers. Teach your people to...understand a garden, the reason for a fountain, music."

-Guy Gavriel Kay,The Lions of Al-Rassan

Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any creative art. The water is free. So drink.Drink and be filled up.

Stephen King,On Writing

We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but also to that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.